


[3:30 pm] gentleswords has logged on.

by ningdom



Category: Tales of Symphonia
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Humor, M/M, MMORPGs, OK YEAH ITS SHEENA/COLETTE I COULDNT SToP MYSELF IM GAY, also its at least half just making fun of kratos, also probably sheena/colette eventually but im not gonna tag it until i know for sure, i cant believe this is who i am, mmorpg au, this is all humor guys sorry, zelloyd won't be for a while honestly so yeah
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-20
Updated: 2016-09-18
Packaged: 2018-06-03 11:45:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 18,054
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6609502
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ningdom/pseuds/ningdom
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lloyd Irving goes to school, plays an MMORPG with his friends, fights with lag, meets an asshole that he may or may not have a raging crush on, wonders how many other people skype with their history teacher, wonders how many other people play online games with their history teacher, argues blatanly with GMs, wakes his dad up almost nightly, and still can't figure out what this Kratos guy's deal is.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. the megaserver update

**Author's Note:**

> A quick keyguide for those unversed in MMO lingo - [W] signifies a whispered (private) message to a single person. [P] is for party chat, where anyone in a group can see it. [G] is guild chat, where anyone in a guild can see it. Grinding is the act of mindlessly killing monsters for experience and items, and mobs is short for monsters. Mats is short for materials. If there’s anything i’m missing i’ll add it here if somebody is confused!
> 
>  
> 
> also i straight up borrowed a few races from other mmos LOOL ie FF14's lalafells ;) LOOK THEM UP IF U DONT KNOW WHAT THEY ARE AND IMAGINE COLETTE AS ONE PLEASE IM BURNING

((chapter 1 - the megaserver update))

\--

Two things happened simultaneously when Lloyd logged in - the first being a customary short but excited private message from Colette:

**[W] [3:38pm] Angelcake!:** lloyd!!! you're home!! :D

The second was the sudden realization that he'd logged off last night in the middle of a big group of mobs. High leveled mobs. 

Lloyd leaned back in his awful squeaky chair, threaded his fingers through his hair, and  _ groaned.  _ He watched in helpless frustration as at least five of the monsters in the area noticed him and started lumbering towards his frozen avatar. Only about half of his screen was properly loaded in, and he knew from experience that even if he tried to move the lag wouldn't let him. Logging in always froze him for a good two to four minutes while his old hunk of junk computer tried to accept that,  _ yes,  _ he  _ would  _ be playing this game again today.

If he'd been surrounded by monsters more his own level, well. He might have been able to scrape away the last bits of his dignity, and his  _ life.  _ He wasn't exactly running a squishy build, so his character probably would have been able to hang on just long enough for him to get control.

The level 32 Dire Wolves that prowled Ossa Trail, though? 

Lloyd grumbled as he watched the last ticks of his health bar completely deplete as the wolves swarmed his avatar. His character had started autoattacking one of them, but it was hopeless. A flashing party invite window hovered above the death message on his screen, the only thing still in vivid color as the rest of the game bled into melancholy black and white. 

**Angelcake! is asking to join your party.**

**Accept? Y/N**

He slowly moved his mouse in circles, waiting for the game's cute little pixeled clicking hand to finally react. It stayed stubbornly in the corner where he'd clicked the OK button to log in. 

Suddenly, it hopped across the screen a few times and realigned itself with where he had his mouse. 

Lloyd cheered. His cursor was back. 

Quickly, he used his newfound powers to click the 'Yes' button to join Colette's party. The UI popped up on the left of his screen, and he winced when he realized Colette could see that he'd died again.

**[P] [3:42 pm] gentleswords:** hi sorry lagging in was rough

**[P] [3:42 pm] Angelcake!:** it's fine!! you died again?? D:

**[P] [3:42 pm] genteswords:** ya was on ossa

**[P] [3:33 pm] Angelcake!:** lloyd :( 

**[P] [3:33 pm] genteswords:** WHAT it's such a good shortcut!!!! 

**[P] [3:33 pm] Angelcake!:** it's not a very good shortcut if you keep dying on it :( do you need help?? i can come revive you!

**[P] [3:34 pm] genteswords:** nah dont bother ill just respawn back in iselia its cool thats where u are anyways right??

**[P] [3:35 pm] Angelcake!:** sure am!! meet you there, then?? also, do you want to skype?

Lloyd selected Iselia's inn, and clicked the respawn button. While the game went black and loaded him into the new area, he minimized it and opened up skype. Scrolling through his list of contacts, it didn't take him long to find Colette and click the big green call button. 

"Hi, Lloyd!" Her sunny voice chirped through his headset, and he couldn't stop himself from grinning. 

"It feels like it's been forever!" He joked, laughing a short chuckle as he brought his game client back up. 

"We just got out of class an hour ago!" Colette giggled. "Is Genis still at school?" 

Lloyd nodded, and then realized that she couldn't see him. He coughed awkwardly. "Yeah. He just started that after school club." 

"Oh! That math club, right?" 

"Yeah." 

The screen finally un-blacked itself, and Lloyd's character came to in an room in the Iselia inn. His chat window was quickly swallowed up by people talking raucously in town and spamming trade offers. "I'm just getting out of the inn, where are you?" He asked as he clunkily maneuvered himself down the stairs. 

"I'm already waiting just outside!" Colette chirped.

Sure enough, when he ran outside the first thing he noticed was Colette's  _ adorable  _ avatar doing a cute little dance in the street. 

Aselia Online boasted about having the best character creation for a  _ reason.  _ You could make your character look like pretty much anything you could think of; anything from the fringe of your bangs to the bridge of your nose was customizable. It was only natural, then, that barring all three of them choosing whatever races they wanted Colette, Lloyd, and Genis had all decided to try and make their characters look just like themselves. Genis had apparently sat there with a picture of himself taped to the screen and adjusted the sliders on everything bit by bit until he'd somehow made his character into a downright perfect replica. 

It also had an  _ enormous  _ pool of races to choose from - Colette had picked one of the less popular ones. As a Lalafell, her character was short, tiny, and round with huge cheeks and starry eyes. Lloyd was nearly certain that it was impossible to look at for more than five minutes without feeling one's chest tighten with  _ cuteness.  _

Lloyd himself had picked Lycan as his race - he was essentially, in Colette's words, a 'big furry dog man.' He'd chosen for his character to keep a more human face, but his front arms were covered with thick looking brown fur and a big long tail swished between his legs when he walked. Surprisingly, he'd actually managed to put his hairstyle onto the thing, too. It didn't look bad, either. It stuck up all over the place and fit right in with the general wolfiness of the rest of his character. ( _ Proof _ , he said later to Genis,  _ that my hair is Rugged and Wild and Cool and not dumb like you keep saying _ . Genis had shaken his head and looked like he'd bit into a rather sour lemon.)

Colette gave a cute little gasp, and stopped dancing. She took a few steps closer to him. "Lloyd, you got some new clothes!" 

He grinned and clicked the action button that he'd specifically keyed onto his hotbar, and his character flexed. Colette giggled. "I did, last night! After you and Genis went to bed, I couldn't really sleep. So I kept playing. One of the mini-bosses I killed dropped a key for one of those mystery boxes, and when I opened one, there it was!" He pressed the button a few more times. "The coolest red jacket I've ever  _ seen!"  _

Colette's giggles just got louder. "It's got suspenders on it!" 

"I know,  _ right?!  _ It's called the  _ Woodcarver's Coat _ !" Lloyd sighed happily and ran around her in circles. "So, what do you want to do? We've got around an hour until Genis gets on and we can't really do anything big without him." 

Colette made a thoughtful noise. "Well, I'm not sure about what to do right  _ now,  _ but did you hear about the patch tonight?" 

"No! Patch? What are they adding? A new race? A new class?" 

New patches were always big deals. The developers always had something huge in each one so that the game never got boring. New stuff was always being implemented and expanded on. 

"I have no idea! They've been really tight-lipped about it... oh! There is one thing I remember!" Colette said excitedly.

Lloyd grinned into his mic. "Yeah? What's the Brunel Forecast?" 

"Lloyd!" Colette was probably trying to sound patronizing, but the giggles ruined the effect. "They're implementing something called a Megaserver. It's gonna merge the servers together!"

"Woah, merge them? Into one server? Won't that push the player count off the charts?" Lloyd bit his lip. "The lag's bad enough already..." 

"From what I heard, it's not going to merge them  _ everywhere.  _ Just, like - if you're on the same map you can interact with people on the Tethe'alla server!" 

"Oh." Lloyd blinked. "That's not that bad. I mean, the main maps are empty enough. I was just worried about the bigger cities, you know." 

Colette made a thoughtful hum. "'I'm not really sure how that's going to work out, you're right. You can barely make it from point A to point B in Palmacosta as it is, and Tethe'alla is supposed to have double the people we do!" 

"Oh yeah! They made the Sylvarant server because Tethe'alla was totally full, right? No-one new could join." Lloyd pressed 'B' and pulled open the game's built-in web browser. A quick google search gave him pretty much the same answer that Colette had relayed - the update was definitely bigger than just the megaserver, but nothing had been leaked yet. "Damn, I'm surprised that they managed to keep a lid on everything else." 

Colette giggled again, and started moving her character towards Iselia's southern gate. "Well, we have a few hours before the patch comes in! What do you want to do until then?" She asked.

Lloyd shrugged. After sitting and staring at his screen for a few moments, he realized she couldn't see him shrugging. 

So, he pressed the other action hotkey he'd put on his bar.

His character shrugged.

Colette's giggles erupted into full-blown laughter. "You shrugged, didn't you! In real life, you shrugged!" 

"I- no! No, I totally didn't!" Lloyd spluttered, and mashed his shrug button. "I'm shrugging here! Here! On the game!"

\---

They got halfway through the Triet desert before Colette remembered that she'd wanted to collect crafting ingredients around Iselia. 

So, they turned back. 

"I'm sorry! It's just - I keep running out of materials to make nets and crates and buying them off the auction house! And it's just such a waste of money!" Colette stammered awkwardly. 

"Colette, it's fine! We didn't really have anything else planned. Really, I don't mind." Lloyd made sure to smile extra wide so that she'd be able to hear it. 

A moment of silence.

"You should get into a crafting job, too!" 

Lloyd frowned. "Nah, I'll pass. It's a hassle. I don't really need to make anything - I mean, with you being a Beast-tamer and Genis making potions and food and stuff, I don't really need anything!" 

"You could be a blacksmith! Make your own swords!" Colette insisted.

"Yeah, but that would only help me! You guys don't use swords. I don't really wanna take a crafting job that only helps me." He muttered. "Everyone can equip pets, and everyone can use potions and eat food." 

"What about armor? Or costumes? There's a job where you can make clothes that everyone can wear, right? Armor is class specific, so you'd only be able to make your own again, but costumes would work!" 

"I don't wanna make clothes. And besides, Sheena has that one already." Lloyd grumbled.

Stumped, Colette switched topics. "What are you going to do with the materials you gather? Sell them?" 

"Nah. I'll just put them in the guild bank. If anyone needs them, they can just grab them." Lloyd said as he one-shot an annoying aggroed desert snake that had been following them for the last two minutes.

"Oh! That's good!" Colette chirped, smile back in her voice. 

Their guild was small, but everyone was always ready and happy to help each other out. Lloyd, Colette, and Genis had started playing together first, and had made the guild when Genis found a list of some of the rewards you could get from having one. Lloyd had been the only one with enough money to start it up, and he'd soon found himself the named leader of ' **Dwarven Vow #7** ,’ or ‘DV7’ for short. It was a name that confused many people they played with, as none of them were, in fact, Dwarves. Colette had seen the list of Dwarven vows in the lore pages, though, and insisted. Genis had decided that ‘Dwarven Vow #7’ was a better name than ‘The Unnerving Irvings,’ which was what Lloyd had wanted, so that had been that. (“At least  _ one of us  _ would have been an Irving.” Lloyd grumbled. “None of us are  _ Dwarves. _ ”) 

Shortly after, they'd found out that Genis' older sister, Raine, also played Aselia. It was one of those things that didn't make sense whatsoever but for lack of a better reaction, the three of them just went with it. (Raine wasn't the type of person to play games like Aselia. At all. Or- so they'd thought) She'd joined up when they'd (awkwardly) offered, and their guild of three became a guild of four. Raine didn't play with them often, much preferring to wander around and do... whatever it was she did on Aselia, but if they asked politely she'd accompany them. Raine was the only completely healing orientated player they had - both her and Colette were Priests, but where Colette tried to split her build between damage and support, Raine was purely specced into healing. Ironically, her and Genis both had picked half-elf as their race without any knowledge of the other's choice whatsoever. Lloyd still laughed about that sometimes.

It had just been the four of them for a good amount of time after that. Nearly a month had gone by when they met a user named ' **luckofthedraw.'** They'd been trying to find one last party member to take on the level 20 story dungeon, and the assassin had been the only person to answer their call. The dungeon run had been ridiculously smooth - they'd tried to run it before with only the four of them, and had only emerged victorious after three whole party wipes. Somehow, with just the added DPS of  **luckofthedraw** , the dungeon had gone from being impossibly hard to easier than cutting butter. Lloyd had added her to his friend's list, and a few days later when they were stuck in the middle of a dungeon, he'd messaged her again to ask for help. She'd gotten to them in record time, and once again they'd made quick work of the dungeon with her there.

After that, Lloyd had sent her an invite to their guild. She'd introduced herself as 'Sheena,' and they'd been friends ever since. 

The only other person in their guild was probably, in Lloyd's opinion, the weirdest one.

His username was just ' **Kratos** ,' which was also apparently his real name. The guy had popped up randomly back when they'd been trying to run the first dungeon in the game (and failing miserably) and had hung around to give them tips and help them through. He'd pretty much invited himself to their guild when Lloyd had made it, and almost  _ never  _ talked in chat. (Unless he was imparting small tidbits of Wisdom and Knowledge.) He joined their voice calls on skype sometimes, but apparently didn't have a mic. He didn't even bother replying when they asked him if he wanted to join their first video call. 

Lloyd was about 90% sure he was a serial killer, but Kratos knew a lot about the game and always gave really good advice so unless there was concrete proof Lloyd wouldn't call the police. (Genis and Raine were both 100% sure on the serial killer thing. Really, the guy was downright unsettling sometimes.)

Kratos was also still level 15. He was rarely online, and when he was it didn't really seem like he ever  _ did  _ anything. He just hung around. He'd stay one level for  _ days,  _ until everyone would wake up one morning and suddenly he'd have jumped five levels in one night.

Sheena had the theory that 'Kratos' was an alt, and he possibly had some higher leveled character he played on more regularly. Of course, that would mean that he probably had a whole alt character just to hang around  _ them, _ and wow Lloyd hoped that wasn't the case because  _ shit.  _ He'd really have to call the police then because that was at least stalker behavior on a good day, and definitely serial killer behavior on a bad one. 

**[4:40 pm] Kratos is online.**

"Shit. Speak of the devil." Lloyd muttered.

"Huh?" Colette asked. "You didn't say anything, though."

"I was thinking it. Close enough." 

**Kratos is asking to join your party.**

**Accept? Y/N**

"We're just gathering stuff. Do I tell him no?" Lloyd hoped Colette would say yes.

"No! The more the merrier!" She clapped loud enough that he could hear it through her mic.

Damn.

Lloyd clicked accept, and Kratos' name and health bars showed up under Colette's on his party UI. 

Directing his character to run over and pick a few of the cotton plants that had popped up while they'd been talking, Lloyd waited awkwardly.

"He's not even saying anything." He imagined his character ripping the plants out of the ground angrily.

**[P] [4:42 pm] Angelcake!:** hi kratos!! it's just me and lloyd but we have a call open! do you want to join????

Lloyd groaned. 

"I had to!" Colette squeaked. "It would've been rude not to ask!" 

"I know, I know, I know..." Lloyd buried his face in his hands and groaned again.

**[P] [4:45 pm] Kratos:** That would be acceptable.

" _ Acceptable?!"  _ Lloyd had peeked through his fingers to see the chat, and promptly covered his eyes again.

"He has such a sophisticated way of talking!" Colette choked out in between laughs.

"Sophisticated- it's not  _ soph _ -" 

"Lloyd, shh! I'm adding him!" Colette whispered. 

A soft click was the only warning he got that Kratos was in their call. No 'Hello,' no anything. Oh, right. He doesn't have a  _ mic. _

**[W] [4:46 pm] to Angelcake!:** i dont believe it for one second. he doesnt have a mic. everyone has a mic. i have a mic

**[W] [4:46 pm] from Angelcake!:** lloyd!!!!!! st op!!

"Hi, Kratos!" Colette chirped, voice suspiciously loud. "It's good to see you! How have you been?" 

Lloyd frowned. Kratos hadn't been on for a few days.

**[P] [4:50 pm] Kratos:** Fine, thank you. You?

**[W] [4:50 pm] to Angelcake!:** why does it always take him like. ten minutes to respond to ANYTHING it does NOT TAKE TEN MINUTES TO TYPE FINE THANK YOU

"I'm great! Today was really fun, too! You remember that I'm in a cooking class, right? Well, we got to make our own recipes today instead of following the book!" Colette always loved making her own recipes. "I made a pie with  _ fourteen _ different types of fruit!" 

Lloyd choked. "Fourteen?! I didn't even know there  _ were  _ fourteen different fruits!"

**[W] [4:51 pm] from Angelcake!:** maybe he's busy! 

"Yep! Strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, pineapple, peaches, apples, kiwis, watermelon, cherries, cantaloupe, blueberries, -" 

"Ok! I believe you. Fourteen, I believe you." Lloyd quickly interrupted her. Part of him did want to hear all fourteen, though. 

**[P] [4:52 pm] Kratos:** A feat to be proud of. I trust it was satisfactory?

**[W] [4:52 pm] to Angelcake!:** ok does he? roleplay? is he roleplaying? is that why he talks like that. i mean i dont care if he wants to roleplay let him roleplay i just want to KNOW

"Yes, it definitely was! Thank you, Mr. Kratos!" Colette said, voice sweet.

**[P] [4:55 pm] Kratos:** Of course. And your day was good as well, Lloyd?

**[W] [4:55 pm] to Angelcake!:** GOD

Lloyd grimaced. "Yeah, it was fine. No problems here." Moving his camera around a bit, he caught sight of some Copper Ore veins sticking out of the ground and directed his character to go begin mining them. "Just gathering mats and stuff right now." He frantically poured through excuses in his head. Well, his mouth  _ was _ a bit dry. "Hold on, I'll be right back. I'm gonna go get some water and a bag of chips or something." 

Leaning back, he quickly hit the mute button for his mic and croaked out a long suffering groan.

\---

By the time Genis finally got online, the conversation was completely dead. 

Lloyd and Colette quietly collected materials from all around Iselia - copper, beast fangs, cotton, speckled eggs, oak logs. Kratos hadn't spoken in the chat since five, and it was reaching five-thirty. (He was, however,  _ definitely _ still in voice chat with them.) Lloyd had managed to scrape together a full stack of cotton, and had about a half stack of everything else besides beast fangs; he'd only managed about ten of those. 

Lloyd traded Colette all the wood and cotton he'd gathered first, as her monster-catching equipment needed almost  _ ridiculous  _ quantities of it. (A fourth of a stack of cotton went into making a single small net!)

She babbled something in excitement as Lloyd added Genis to the call. The only words he could make out were 'dog' and 'net.' 

"Hey, guys." Genis' voice filtered through his headphones, and Lloyd immediately flung himself back to his keyboard and typed a message to him quickly.

**[W] [5:39 pm] to fivestargenious:** kratos is in call

**[W] [5:39 pm] from fivestargenious:** I didn't notice. Thanks. 

"When is the patch getting implemented? Anyone know?" Genis asked.

Genis was almost legendary for cutting straight to the chase. No small talk.

"No clue." Lloyd yawned.

"I heard it was sometime tonight, for sure, but I'm not sure on the time! I'm a bit hesitant to start anything." Colette made a humming noise.

"Yeah. If we start a quest or a dungeon or something, we might get cut short and have to restart. That would suck." Lloyd agreed. Back in Iselia, he ran to the Guild Banker and dropped the rest of the materials he'd gathered in. Their bank was pretty empty except for an increasingly intimidating stockpile of potions and physical attack increasing food.

Genis always seemed to make too much of everything. Lloyd had no idea where he got all the materials.

**[P] [5:43 pm] Kratos:** It's in seventeen minutes. At six.

"Oh, thank you!" Colette said happily. "Well, I'm glad we were just gathering, then." 

**[W] [5:43 pm] from fivestargenious:** That information WASN'T on the page. I looked. 

**[W] [5:43 pm] from fivestargenious:** =___=

**[W] [5:43 pm] to fivestargenious:** IKR

Lloyd rolled back in his chair and looked at his desk. He had two empty bags of hot chili chips laying on his right. "Do you think I'd die if I grabbed another bag of chips?" 

"How many have you had?" Genis deadpanned.

Lloyd looked again. "... One. I've had one."

"Was it only one?" Colette asked, voice lilting in confusion. 

Colette was totally going to sell him out on accident. 

**[P] [5:44 pm] Kratos:** You've had two bags of chips so far, Lloyd. You shouldn't have even had two. They're not supposed to be meals.

Goddamnit,  _ Kratos.  _

"A _ lright _ . I won't have any more." Lloyd blew a raspberry into his mic. "Geez, you sound like my dad."

**[W] [5:45 pm] to fivestargenious:** kratos is counting how many chips im fking eating

**[W] [5:46 pm] from fivestargenious:** LOL. I'm telling you; serial killer. Watch out.

Kratos stayed silent. 

"I'm gonna go to the bathroom. I'll be right back." Lloyd grumbled. 

On his way back, he stopped in the pantry and grabbed another bag of chips. 

He gingerly carried it back to his desk so it wouldn't crinkle, and clicked the mute button before he pulled it open. Pulling his big red blanket from his bed, he tucked the chip bag in between his legs and pulled the blanket over it. 

He unmuted his mic.

**[P] [5:47 pm] Kratos:** You're going to get sick on those chips.

"What- I didn't even- I didn't even make any noise! How did you know I got chips?!" Lloyd spluttered. Colette was making the awkward muffled squeaking noises she always made when she tried to stop herself from laughing with her hands.

Genis snorted. "You were obviously thinking about getting more, and if you think about it you're gonna do it. You're too obvious."

Lloyd groaned and stuffed a handful of chips into his mouth. 

**[P] [5:48 pm] Kratos:** You muted your mic after you came back from the bathroom so that we wouldn't be able to hear the bag opening. You did that last week, too. 

Lloyd threw his head back and downed the whole bag in defiance. 

\---

They ended the skype call at 5:58. Everyone would be patching for thirty minutes (or longer, in Lloyd's case. His computer really wasn't the best. For that matter, neither was his internet connection) and they'd pick it back up when it was time to log in. In other words- it was break time.

Six o'clock came and went, and just like Kratos said, when he reopened the launcher the new patch popped up for updating. 

Lloyd's computer helpfully informed him that it would take about three thousand and fifteen hours to download it. He knew from experience, however, that this number was a lie. It was just the number it always gave him.

He watched it download for about ten minutes, and it had gotten to around five percent. Lloyd assumed it would take around an hour or longer to download, and promptly decided to go take a quick shower.

\--

Lloyd didn't end up taking a shower. 

Noishe was sleeping in the bathroom on the rug. He was a  _ big  _ dog. Lloyd guessed that he was a long haired lab, or a newfoundland. Noishe's white fur was always pretty and clean (and all over the black sofa cushions and Lloyd's clothes) a fact that Dirk took great pride in. Lloyd was pretty sure Dirk spent more time brushing Noishe than he did eating, which was basically crazy. Noishe had been with them for as long as Lloyd could remember. 

It always seemed like a serious crime to wake the old dog up, so Lloyd quietly pulled the door closed enough so that only a sliver of light shone through, and wandered off to do something else.

He sat down to peek at his 3DS. An hour and a half of playing later and another Gym battle down, he realized he was probably done patching and shot up to his feet with a shout. 

A loud thump from below his feet reminded him that  _ yes,  _ it was almost 8 o'clock at night, and his dad was trying to sleep.

He whispered a quick 'sorry' that Dirk probably couldn't hear, and hopped over to his computer. Aselia  _ was  _ done patching, and he had about ten missed messages from their group call. Oops.

The call was already running, so he clicked the join button right before clicking 'play' on Aselia's launcher. 

"-- bet on it. I bet you." Genis' voice had a certain suffering quality that it only took on when he was annoyed (with Lloyd, normally.) 

"Hi, guys! Sorry I'm late." Lloyd cut in before he could hear anything else. 

"And  _ look _ who finally arrives!" Genis cried.

"It's alright! He was probably busy with Noishe!" Colette, an actual angel, spoke up. In a way, Lloyd supposed her statement was true, too. Sort of. Not really, but he'd tell himself it was.

"No way. He was on his DS." Genis knew him too well. It was scary, actually. He'd probably developed some sort of Lloyd-sense over the years. He always knew when something was Amiss.

A message ping from skype popped up, and he switched to his private chat with Genis.

**[7:45 pm] Genis:** Kratos is Still In The Call.

**[7:45 pm] Me:** shit thanks

Lloyd looked. Kratos' skype icon wasn't on the screen. He clicked around in confusion, and found some invisible button on the right that scrolled the call group over to a new page, where Kratos' anonymous icon finally showed up. 

**[7:45 pm] Me:** do u think he knows how to change his icon??? i mean

**[7:45 pm] Me:** and hes on his own creepy little page like. if u didnt click over ud never even know he was there. god

**[7:46 pm] Genis:** Serial Killer.

**[7:46 pm] Genis:** And he probably does know how. But can you even imagine Kratos with an icon? At all? I can't.

**[7:47 pm] Me:** he's just always gonna be the creepy anon face. forever

"Are we ready to go?" Colette clapped excitedly.

"Hold on, I'm not at the login screen yet. Still loading." Lloyd stared into the black abyss of the loading screen as it slowly glitched it's way open. 

"You should get a new computer." Genis was always insisting that he upgrade. It wasn't happening.

" _ No. _ " Lloyd shook his head wildly, and patted the back of his screen. "This thing's my baby. It's been with me forever - I won't give up on it now." 

"Ugh." There was a sound like someone slapping their face. "You're hopeless. You're completely hopeless. The computer doesn't have any loyalty to you. It's just a computer. Get a new one." 

"He doesn't have to if he doesn't want to." Colette, saving him again. 

Lloyd nodded awkwardly. He wished he was in game so he could press his action keys. "Colette's right. I don't have to if I don't want to."

"But, well- it would be nice if you didn't have so much trouble with lag!" Colette chirped. "I mean, the rest of us get lag too! But, you're always having  _ so much _ trouble, you know?" 

Lloyd put his head in his hands. "Betrayed, by my closest friend." He muttered.

Finally, the login screen loaded up, and he typed in his username and password as quick as he could. A little notice popped up as he was moved to character selection.

**Hello, and welcome to the MEGASERVER update of** **_Aselia Online!_ **

**In this update, we've added a few extra storyline quests and dungeons - but most importantly, the servers of Sylvarant and Tethe'alla have been completely merged! If you look at your World Map, there is a whole new world for you to explore, just across the ocean! Meet new people, and have fun!**

**\- CC**

"Tethe'alla and Sylvarant were different physically?" Lloyd asked.

"You didn't know that?" Genis groaned. "The two maps were almost completely different. They just shared a few key points, like the Tower of Salvation and such." 

"Oh-" Lloyd started, but cut himself off when he saw a tiny skype notification on the bottom right of his screen. "Sheena's online!" 

"Sheena!" Colette echoed him happily.

Whoever was in control of the call added her, and she answered in seconds.

"This is horrible!" Sheena howled, the first they'd heard from her since yesterday. 

"Hello to you too." Genis muttered. 

Obviously, tonight was not his night. Lloyd wondered if he'd had too much mathletes homework or something. It seemed like it would give you alot of homework. Just the name sent shivers up his spine.

"What's wrong?" Colette asked. Lloyd had opened his mouth to ask the same question, but snapped it shut.

"Remember what I told you about how I switched servers?!" Sheena cried.

"Yeah, you used to play on Tethe'alla! Didn't something happen, though?" Lloyd scratched his chin. To be fair, she'd never really addressed the specifics of why she'd switched servers.

"Yes, something  _ happened! _ I used to be in this  _ huge  _ guild! Like, big enough to have our own Guild Base! But I screwed up on one of the guild quests and completely ruined it for everyone and they kicked me out! What if I run into them again?! The whole reason I switched servers is because they kept sending me hatemail!" Sheena sounded really upset. 

"That's not fair!" Colette said. "They can't do that to you because of one mistake!" 

"Big enough to have a  _ Guild Base?!  _ Don't you need, like, literally  _ hundreds _ of people for that?" Genis asked incredulously. 

Sheena's scoff was clearly audible through her mic. (This was a feat, as normally it was kind of hard to hear anything that wasn't strictly her talking. Her mic was weird like that.) "I know it seems crazy because you guys have always been on Sylvarant, but Tethe'alla is just like that. More people than it knew what to do with - that's why they opened Sylvarant in the first place."

Lloyd grinned. "Don't worry, Sheena. If anyone messes with you, they'll have to deal with all of us!" 

Colette made a noise of agreement, and Sheena started to snicker. "My saviors. A tiny Sylvarant guild of about four level twenties against a full-blown Tethe'allan guild. You'll each take out around ten max levels, of  _ course."  _ Her voice carried an odd mix of fond sarcasm, but she seemed to have calmed down a bit.

"Don't forget Kratos." Lloyd said helpfully. "That's four level twenties and one level fifteen. And you, because you'll fight with us, right? Four level twenties, one level fifteen, and one level  _ thirty."  _

"They won't even see us coming." Genis was more groaning in hopelessness than speaking, but that was fine too. 

Sheena burst into laughter, and a few heavy thumps that Lloyd assumed was her smacking her table filtered through his headset. 

"What's the name of the guild you were in?" Lloyd asked.

" _ Mizuho,"  _ Sheena gasped out after a particularly heavy bout of giggling.

Lloyd's computer screen suddenly brightened as he finally loaded in, and he gave a little woop and cheer. "I'm in! I mean, I still have to wait for the lag to stop, but I'm in!" 

Colette joined his cheering, and her character seemingly teleported onto the screen on his left. She jumped from spot to spot without her character actually moving an inch. 

Lloyd awkwardly keysmashed until his own character finally began to move. He sent a quick invite to the group, and in thirty seconds flat they had a full party. Two seconds later, a message appeared in the chat.

**[P] [8:03 pm] Kratos:** Do not engage in combat against Mizoho. You will lose.

"Don't be such a stick in the mud, Kratos!" Lloyd groaned.

**[W] [8:03 pm] to fivestargenious:** holy sht did he just have that like . copypasted or something that was so fast for kratos normally it takes him like 10 years to type

**[W] [8:03 pm] from fivestargenious:** I can imagine him sitting there with that loaded up on CTRLV just waiting for everyone to get in party so he could paste it in. 

**[W] [8:04 pm] to fivestargenious:** watch out everyone funs not allowed kratos is on the job

"He's totally right, you know?" Sheena said. "We would lose, no questions asked." 

"That doesn't mean we shouldn't try!" Colette said forcefully. "Besides, it might not even come to that. Maybe they've gotten over it!" 

**[P] [8:05 pm] Kratos:** Mizuho is less likely to get over losing a Summon Quest than you are to win against them in Guild versus Guild combat.

"Woah, now how did you know that's what it was?" Sheena blurted.

**[W] [8:06 pm] from luckofthedraw:** i told you! tetheallan alt!! i told you!!! he knows !!!!

**[P] [8:06 pm] Kratos:** It was not difficult to discern what had happened. All I had to do was search Mizuho's forums for a board related to the incident.

**[W] [8:07 pm] from luckofthedraw:** ok nevermind. but still

**[W] [8:07 pm] to luckofthedraw:**  no i know. me too . me too.

**[8:08 pm] SageofPriests is online.**

“Hold on guys, Raine just got home. I updated for her earlier, and she wants to join.” Genis grumbled. 

“Oh!” Colette chirped. “Great! I’ll add her!” 

After a couple of clicks from Colette’s end, Raine’s low voice joined their call. “I hope the three of you did your homework before you started playing. Lloyd, Colette, your history reports are due tomorrow, remember?” 

Lloyd eyed his backpack in the corner of his room. “Yeah, I, uh, totally did mine earlier, Professor.” 

Genis snorted audibly. Raine sighed. 

“Wow, it must be so weird for you guys to play Aselia with your teacher!” Sheena giggled.

“Yeah… haha… weird…” Lloyd agreed awkwardly.

**[P] [8:10 pm] Kratos:** You need to take school more seriously, Lloyd. It’s the building blocks for your future. 

**[W] [8:10 pm] from luckofthedraw:** he’s dad-ing u again 

**[W] [8:10 pm] from fivestargenious:** You know, he’s never this bad when you’re not online. Very quiet, very agreeable. 

Lloyd didn’t even bother to mute his mic before he groaned into his hands.

Colette giggled. “Give him a break, Mister Kratos. He’ll get it done!” 

“I’m loving the life advice, guys, but can we play the game now? I want to see some of the new content!” Lloyd grumbled. 

“Did you see the other notice? The one under the megaserver notice?” Genis suddenly asked. 

“I just read it, myself.” Raine answered.

Lloyd squinted at his screen. A second notice? He hadn’t seen it. Sure enough, a tiny blinking icon was right above his minimap. “Shit, I didn’t even see it.” Colette and Sheena both agreed that they hadn’t noticed it either, and Lloyd felt a little bit better. He clicked it and waited patiently for the little announcement box to maximize in front of his game screen.

**{ NEW! } THE ORACLE -**

“The oracle?” Lloyd read in confusion. “What the hell is that?” 

**[P] [8:15 pm] Kratos:** Just keep reading.

“Fine, fine.” 

**{ NEW! } THE ORACLE -**

**A new event quest takes Aselia by storm! Secure powerful bonuses for your server! Every three months, one player* from both the Sylvarant server and the Tethe’alla server** will be selected by the mysterious new dungeon, the ‘Tower of Mana’! The selected players will become their realm’s ‘Chosen,’ and gain the opportunity to grant their server mysterious bonuses by following their new main quest line, ‘Regeneration’!**

***To reduce the risk of the Chosen status falling on an inactive player, only players that are active at least four days a week will be eligible.**

**The first Oracle will be tonight, at 9:00 P.M. EST!**

**Happy Questing!**

 

  * ****CC****



 

  
“What the hell? That sounds so cool!” Lloyd grinned. “Huh.” He sat back in his chair. “It sucks that only one person gets to do it, though.”

**[P] [8:22 pm] Kratos:** I am certain that the Chosen will be able to receive aid from friends and guild members. 

**[W] [8:21 pm] from fivestargenious:** WHERE IS HE GETTING THIS INFORMATION?!

Lloyd snickered under his breath. There wasn’t much of anything Genis hated more than not being in the loop, and Kratos always seemed to know just a bit more about Aselia than Genis could stand.

**[W] [8:21 pm] from fivestargenious:** I  _ heard  _ that, Lloyd.

“Why are you laughing?” Colette’s voice floated through his speakers, breaking the silence she’d had since reading the notice.

“Nothing,” Lloyd snickered. “Genis is just an idiot.” 

Angry stuttering picked up from Genis’ end, but died back down quickly.

**[W] [8:22 pm] from fivestargenious:** NOW I DEFINITELY HEARD THAT

“I don’t know…” Colette trailed off. “I think being the Chosen would be scary.” 

“Huh?” Lloyd startled at being thrown back on topic. “Oh- why?” 

“It just seems like so much responsibility. Everyone on the server would be mad at you if you messed up.” 

“But you wouldn’t mess up! Not when you’ve got everyone here!” Lloyd grinned into his mic.

Colette giggled, sounding a bit more relaxed. A chorus of agreements from everyone else in the call calmed her down even more. “But what if the person who gets picked doesn’t have any friends? Nobody to help them? Then I think it would be really scary.” 

Lloyd frowned. “Well, you know what?” 

“What?”

“How about, at 9 tonight when the Oracle thingey goes off, we all go find the person who got picked? And offer to help them out if they want it?” Lloyd finished his statement with a little fistbump that only he could see, but it felt right so he did it anyways.

Colette clapped. “Yes! Yes!”

Genis groaned. “Did you forget the part where we’re a guild of four level twenties, one level fifteen, and one level thirty? What the hell can we do?”

Sheena burst out laughing again. “When there’s a will, there’s a way, Genis! Did I ever tell you guys about the time where I was so fed up that I couldn’t find any higher leveled players in Sylvarant to help me with my level 20 advancement quest, so I just did it by myself?”

“You  _ didn’t!  _ At - what - level nineteen?! As a DPS?! Those quests are meant for full parties!” Raine jumped in, sputtering.

Sheena chortled. “Yeah, I _did!_ It sucked, and it took three hours, ten retries, and about a thousand gold’s weight in potions, but I goddamn _did it!_ When there’s a will, there’s a way!” 

Genis just sputtered like his sister for a few moments, but gave in. 

Colette stopped clapping, and made a thoughtful noise. “But what about the other Chosen?” 

“Other- oh, the Tethe’allen one?” Lloyd frowned. “What about them?” 

“What if they don’t end up getting any help, and we help ours? It wouldn’t be fair!” 

**[P] [8:30 pm] Kratos:** I’m not sure you understand just how big Tethe’alla’s playerbase is. Their Chosen would get help, probably whether they wanted it or not. 

“Well…” Colette trailed off. 

“What’re you thinking?” Sheena asked.

“I’m. Not sure.” Colette hummed. “Do you think it would be possible for the two Chosens to work together to complete all the quests?”

Lloyd leaned back, eyebrows knotting. “I’m… not sure it works like that?” 

“I just don’t really like how it’s pitting everyone against each other! I don’t really like PVP, you know? I just thought…”

“... That we could get both Chosens to work together, and everybody gets the rewards equally?” Lloyd finished for her.

“Ah!” Colette clapped again. “Yes! That! That way, it wouldn’t have to be such a hostile kind of game, you know? It would be more fun that way!” 

“Hmmm.” Genis made a thoughtful noise, and Lloyd could easily picture him scratching the side of his cheek in thought. “I mean, logically that works. But I’m not sure that’s it’s programmed into the game, you know?” 

Raine sighed. “It’s a nice thought, Colette, but I just don’t think that’s how it’s supposed to work.” 

Colette went quiet again, and Sheena and Lloyd stumbled over each other to quickly speak up. “But-” “I mean-” “What’s the harm in trying?”

**[P] [8:39 pm] Kratos:** You could get duped by the Tethe’allen players, and lose the event for the entire server. Players in Tethe’alla aren’t nearly as friendly as they are in Sylvarant, you’ll find. It comes with the larger playerbase, I’m afraid.

**[W] [8:40 pm] from fivestargenious:** He’s got to be a Tethe’allen alt. 

**[W] [8:40 pm] from luckofthedraw:** fuckign tethealla alt. your veil of mystery is falling, tall dark and handsom

Lloyd choked.

**[W] [8:40 pm] to luckofthedraw:** SHEENA YOU’RE A TETHEALLA ALT

**[W] [8:40 pm] from luckofthedraw:** AND TALL DARK AND HANDSOME REALLY

**[W] [8:40 pm] to fivestargenious:** wasnt this already established though i mean he hasnt said anything but we kinda all know

“Kratos is right, though.” Sheena huffed. “Take it from someone who knows - people there are really mean sometimes. Sylvarant’s community is so much smaller, but you guys all appreciate each other. It’s a much better atmosphere to play in, honestly. I really hope Tethe’alla doesn’t bleed into Sylvarant too much.”

**[W] [8:41 pm] from fivestargenious:** Not officially. Not by him. He hadn’t goddamn admitted it.

**[W] [8:41 pm] from luckofthedraw:** BUT AT LEAST IM HONEST ABOUT IT HES SHADY!!!

**[W] [8:41 pm] from luckofthedraw:** IT WAS A JOKE LLOYD DO YOU KNO W WAHT THOSE ARE

Colette was talking, and Lloyd had to pull his attention away from  _ fucking Sheena  _ to tune back into what she was saying. 

“- still think we should at least try.” She’d probably made up her mind, and it was really impossible to deny Colette anything. Nobody had the heart to do it, definitely not Lloyd. With a sort of detached acceptance, Lloyd realized what they’d be doing for the next couple of weeks on Aselia. 

Lloyd shrugged, and remembered to click the button on his hotbar to make his character shrug too, even though the only one within sight of him was Colette’s tiny Lalafell. He heard her quietly titter, so she’d noticed. Good. “First thing’s first, though. The oracle’s in -” Lloyd looked at the clock. “- about twenty minutes, wow, have we really just been sitting here talking for an hour?”

“Maybe  _ you’ve  _ been sitting there talking. I’ve been collecting mats.” Genis snarked.

“What!” Lloyd shouted. “Where?! Without me?!” 

“I’ve been here with you, Lloyd!” Colette chirped.

“What’s everyone else doing?!”

“I’m checking out the new dungeon near Iselia. I think it might be the Tower of Mana they mentioned, actually.” Raine mentioned.

“I’m almost at level 33, so I’m grinding mobs on Ossa.” Sheena said. 

“Oh! Do you need help? Lloyd died there earlier!” Colette offered, making Lloyd groan in shame.

“Colette!” He muttered as Sheena started snickering. 

“Oops- Oh, I’m sorry, Lloyd!” Colette sounded genuinely regretful, and Lloyd shook his head despondently. Even though nobody could see it.

“No, it’s fine. I deserve this.” He glared at Sheena’s icon on his party list as she laughed at him. Genis joined in, and he glared at his best friend’s icon too. ‘ _ To kick, or not to kick…’  _

Suddenly sitting up, he realized who he hadn’t gotten an answer from. “Wait, Kratos, what are  _ you _ doing?” 

There was a long period where nothing popped up in the chatbox, and Lloyd was almost about to write him off as AFK (or just not responding to the question - it wasn’t outside the realm with Kratos) when the answer came through.

**[P] [8:47 pm] Kratos:** I’ve been right here with you and Colette since you logged in. 

“WHAT?!” Lloyd choked, and wildly moved his camera around, searching for Kratos’ avatar. Sure enough, Lloyd spotted him idling a ways off under the shadow of one of the buildings. Kratos’ avatar was a human and wore all purple - for some reason, Lloyd had no idea why he didn’t just dye the stupid jumpsuit - and melted into the shadow almost unnoticeably. 

“I didn’t know you were here, Mister Kratos!” Colette gasped, and her little avatar teetered over to him. 

**[W] [8:48 pm] from luckofthedraw:** ARE YOU SERIOUS RIGHT NOW

**[W] [8:48 pm] from fivestargenious:** Serial Killer.

**[W] [8:48 pm] to luckofthedraw:** OH MY GOD HE WAS JUST RIGHT HERE THE WHOLE TIME? I NEVER SAW HIM? 

**[W] [8:48 pm] to luckofthedraw:** this is THE WORST

**[W] [8:48 pm] from fivestargenious:** now is not the time genis

**[P] [8:49 pm] Kratos:** It’s alright, Colette. I did not go out of my way to make myself known.

**[W] [8:49 pm] to luckofthedraw:** thats one way of putting it i mEAN he was really just standing there in the darkness. Hiding. God

**[W] [8:49 pm] from luckofthedraw:** do u think if we’re nicer to him he wont hunt us down and kill us in our sleep???  Cause im thinking about investing in a better alarm system honestly

Raine made a disgruntled noise. “The oracle is in ten minutes. I’m now 100% sure that this Tower I’m at is the Tower of Mana - there’s a pretty big crowd gathering outside it. You should all make your way here if you really want to go through with this harebrained Chosen plan.” 

“Right on, Professor.” Lloyd croaked. 

“On our way!” Colette said happily.

**[P] [8:51 pm] Kratos:** I will accompany Lloyd and Colette.

**[W] [8:51 pm] to luckofthedraw:** if i start getting creepy notes with ransom font god help me i know where to look

**[W] [8:51 pm] from luckofthedraw:** be strong lloyd

**[W] [8:51 pm] from luckofthedraw:** be strong

**[W] [8:52 pm] from luckofthedraw:** if you die can i have your ds

Lloyd sighed.

\---

The walk to the coordinates that Raine had given them for the Tower of Mana only took a few minutes, but they only had a few minutes to spare anyways. By the time they got there, it was only two minutes away from 9:00. 

“But how will we know who gets chosen?” Lloyd asked. A few people in the area chat were asking the same thing, but nobody seemed to have a clue. 

**[P] [8:59 pm] Kratos:** I imagine that the developers assume it will be obvious to us. Just be patient for one more minute.

“Hmm.” Lloyd grunted. 

**[P] [8:59 pm] Kratos:** A high feat for you, I am aware.

“Hey!”

“Oooh!” Genis hollared. “Shit, Lloyd! Kratos just smoked you!” 

“Goddamnit, Genis, shut the f-” Lloyd was cut off by a bright flash of light from his screen. The picture transitioned into a cutscene of a bright light being shot up into the sky from the tower they were all gathered in front of, and flew back down. Alongside the light, the camera zoomed in on the character it was headed straight for -

“Oh my-!” 

“That’s!” 

“ _ Me?!”  _ Colette yelped.

The light crashed down on Colette’s tiny avatar, and the camera zoomed in on Lloyd’s screen to show a golden necklace that held a brilliant red gem materializing on her neck. 

“Colette,  _ it’s you!”  _ Lloyd shrieked, slamming his fist on his desk. A loud thumping on his floor from Dirk’s room below him made him quiet down a fraction, but not by much. He thumped his desk a tiny bit lighter.

“ _ Lloyd! Shut the fuck up up there!”  _ Dirk’s angry voice sounded up through the floor.

“ _ Colette!” _ Lloyd hissed. “It’s  _ you!”  _

“I- I know! I can’t believe this! Why me?!” 

The cutscene had faded away, leaving the small gaggle of players (large, though, for Sylvarant’s standards) swarming around Colette’s tiny avatar. The area chat was exploding with people asking her questions, if she’d known she was going to be chosen, what she was going to do, what the rewards were - stupid questions that Lloyd knew Colette didn’t have the answer to. 

**[A] [9:03 pm] gentleswords:** hey! Shut up everyone! Give her some space!

“Thanks- thank you Lloyd, but I’m okay! I just- I just needed a minute!” Colette did indeed sound a bit calmer. 

**[A] [9:03 pm] Angelcake!:** it’s ok! Hello! Um!

**[A] [9:03 pm] Angelcake!:** I’m not the best at this game, but I have a great bunch of friends that are going to help me! I’ll do my best for Sylvarant, ok? 

**[A] [9:03 pm] Angelcake!:** and i didn’t know anything about this either! I don’t know what the rewards are :( sorry! 

“Holy fuck.” Sheena sounded winded.

“Indeed.” Raine sounded a bit more composed, but she obviously wasn’t expecting Colette to get chosen either.

“I- what do we do now?” Colette murmured, sounding unsure. 

“Enter the tower, perhaps? It’s the only new content we know of at the moment.” Raine theorized.

The throng of people was beginning to dissipate, leaving only a few stragglers and their group. Colette was silent again for a while. “What about the Tethe’allen player that got picked?” 

Lloyd thought about it. “Well, they’re probably heading for - for their own Tower of Mana? Or do they come to this one too?” 

**[P] [9:06 pm] Kratos:** I’d imagine they have their own. Otherwise, there would probably be many more people outside this one. I don’t think I see a single Tethe’allen player.

“... How do you tell them apart?” Lloyd asked.

**[P] [9:06 pm] Kratos:** Tethe’allen characters have a different symbol next to their name. It’s obvious.

“Well I didn’t know that.” Lloyd grumbled.

“I didn’t either.” Colette offered. 

They sat in silence for a few moments before Genis suddenly growled. “Let’s just go in! Come on, you guys! Go! Go!” 

There was a moment of awkward scrambling before their party started heading towards the entryway of the Tower. 

“After we get out of here, can we find a way to contact the Tethe’allen Chosen? I want to at least try to work together.” Colette whispered.

Lloyd melted. “Yeah! Yeah, of course!” Sheena yelled something equally enthusiastic. The rest of the party grumbled a bit, but they weren’t going to say no. Lloyd squinted at the chatbox, waiting for Kratos to say something, and nodding in satisfaction when nothing popped up. Unless Kratos was taking a particularly long time to type, they were in the clear. Even if he did say something, they were probably just going to do it anyways, though. 

\---


	2. the tower of mana and absolutely zero respect for authority figures

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello again its been so long LOL NO IT HASNT ive been writing since 9am this morning LOL oops its 3 now  
> ok i stole another ff race and i know viera all only have white hair but i refused that becuase im absolutely lazy and i dont care I mean i do but you know what i mean  
> if it makes it any better its explained later on LOL

\---

“Do we have time for me to grab another snack?” 

Genis groaned. Colette giggled a bit, and started to say something before Raine cut her off. “You couldn’t have grabbed it earlier?” 

Lloyd frowned. “I didn’t think about it earlier.”

**[P] [9:11 pm] Kratos:** If it’s a healthy snack, go ahead. If you meant to grab another bag of chips, we will continue on without you.

An odd choked laughing noise that Lloyd was at least 95% sure came out of Sheena made him frown again, so he blew a raspberry. Admittedly, like a child, but sometimes it was just something that had to be done. “Fine, fine. No more chips.” 

He clicked the entrance of the Tower, and leaned back and watched as his avatar followed the rest of the group up the steps. Raine’s character - a tall half-elven woman with fancy braided and beaded white hair and  _ huge _ ears - was running all over the entryway. It kinda looked like she was spazzing out, really. Lloyd snorted. “What are you doing, Professor?” 

“I’m investigating for new  _ lore _ , Lloyd. I know you, Genis, and Colette don’t really take the lore in this game seriously, but it’s very well thought out and the developers put love into it. It’s all very interesting!” Raine sounded excited, and Lloyd had to smile. It wasn’t often that Raine got so invested in something, so it was nice to see.

He had half a mind to think that Aselia’s lore was honestly the only reason she even played as much as she did. Instead of going for a more traditional crafting job, Raine had instead chosen to level an unpopular discipline called ‘Archeology,’ where you had to equip your character with a magnifying glass and something called ‘The Book of Regeneration.’ 

Lloyd didn’t know exactly how Archeology worked in Aselia, but from what he’d heard Raine explaining - and boy, would she explain if you got her talking - all of the lore was scattered throughout the game’s ruins in the form of coded hiero- hiero-

“Professor, what’s that word again? For the picture words?”

“Hieroglyphics?”

“Yeah, that one. Thanks.”

- _ hieroglyphics _ that you could decode with the Book of Regeneration. The pictures were apparently the ‘language of the angels,’ whatever that meant. Raine used her magnifying glass to be able to zoom her screen in really far, and the book to decode the lore. Lloyd knew that she had an actual  _ physical  _ notebook she kept with her while she played where she wrote everything down - Genis had sneaked a picture, once.

They waited around for a while for Raine to finish scouring the entryway - “I  _ totally  _ could have gotten another bag of chips, you guys” - and she pinged that she was ready to enter the dungeon when she was done. Kratos and Genis had already pinged. 

**[P] [9:15 pm] Kratos:** Anything interesting?

“Not particularly? It’s all very vague. I’m sure it will make sense eventually, but for right now I’ll have to come back to it.” Raine sounded a bit let down. “I was hoping it would give us a hint on how these quests are supposed to work, or what the rewards for winning might be.”

“Well, what did it say?” Colette asked, and sent everyone a ready ping as well. Lloyd and Sheena both pinged at the same time, and Lloyd’s screen went dark as it began to load the instance. The chatbox was still visible while the game was loading, though, so Kratos could still talk to them. It was probably for the better - dungeon instances took a few minutes to load for  _ normal  _ people with  _ normal  _ computers, let alone Lloyd’s ancient brick.

“Just some fluff about Angels.” Raine said.

Fluff was Raine’s word for useless lore lines that didn’t actually have any importance or information - they were just there for atmosphere. 

“Angels? You mean... the race?” Genis questioned.

Lloyd sat up. “Oh yeah! I forgot there was an angel race! I’ve never seen any.”

**[P] [9:19 pm] Kratos:** I’m not surprised. ‘Angel’ is the sub-race reserved for Game Moderators and developers. There aren’t as many of them as you’d guess.

“Huh.” Lloyd leaned onto his desk, resting his head in his hand while he waited. “I actually didn’t know that. I just thought maybe they were a paid race or something.” It wouldn’t have been surprising - for as free to play as Aselia was, it had a  _ bunch  _ of extra content for paying players. Extra races that could only be accessed in character creation if you bought them, premium hairstyles, vanity items, and costumes were all available in the cash shop, as well as fancy mounts and helpful items like gel packs.

Wait. “Kratos, what’s a sub-race? Aren’t there just. Races?” He was feeling exceedingly stupid today, but shit! He didn’t know any of this.

**[P] [9:20 pm] Kratos:** You didn’t know? Sub-races are extra race categorizations that can be added onto any other race. They’re mostly paid races, or rare rewards from even rarer and hard-to-complete quests.

“Uh. What?”

**[P] [9:20 pm] Kratos:** In the case of Angels - any race can simultaneously be an angel, as well. I.E. a human can also be an angel at the same time, or a half-elf, or a Lalafell. It goes on and on.

“Oh. Huh, I guess that makes sense.” Lloyd hummed. “Thanks!’

**[W] [9:21 pm] from fivestargenious:** You know what I don’t get? He knows all this information about the game, but he’s only level 15. There’s no WAY he’s only level 15. He’s an alt. 

**[W] [9:21 pm] to fivestargenious:** genis yes he’s an alt we’ve covered this we know 

“... Um, Professor?” Colette asked. “I’ve got a question, too. It’s about earlier! Your archeology stuff.”

“What is it?”

**[W] [9:21 pm] from fivestargenious:** I’M JUST SAYING. It’s annoying!

“How can you tell when there’s lore? Do you really have to study every single wall to find it all? That seems a bit…” She trailed off at the end.

“Oh, no, no, no.” Raine actually laughed. “The icon for my book starts blinking if I’m at least in the same room as a line.”

“Oh! That’s nowhere near as hard as I thought!” She giggled a bit. “I was worried!”

**[W] [9:21 pm] to fivestargenious:** youre just pissed off that he knows more than you

With a bright flash, the game caught Lloyd’s attention as it slowly loaded back in. Genis and Sheena both cheered. “Lloyd’s piece of shit computer finally caught up!” Genis crowed.

“Watch your mouth, Genis. I can’t stop Sheena and Lloyd from cursing, but I can stop  _ you.”  _ Raine growled. “I let the last one slip, but I  _ will not  _ have you picking up their bad habits.”

Lloyd snorted, trying not to laugh. Sheena wasn’t nearly as considerate. 

“Shut  _ up,  _ you jerks!” The middle-schooler howled. Colette giggled.

**[P] [9:22 pm] Kratos:** You shouldn’t be laughing, Lloyd. Raine is right. Cursing is a bad habit, and you’d do well to try and curb it.

Lloyd groaned and ran his character past Kratos’s and into the first room of the dungeon. “If I wanted to play video games with my dad, Kratos, I’d go wake him up. Knock it off.” 

**[W] [9:22 pm] from fivestargenious:** I’m so glad Kratos has some kind of superiority complex or something when it comes to you because I don’t feel so alone now. Eat shit.

**[W] [9:23 pm] from luckofthedraw:** he’s dadding you again im dying 

Kratos was, again, silent. Nice.

Choosing to ignore his traitorous friends, Lloyd selected Colette’s avatar and made his character wave at her. “Let’s go, Colette. We don’t need these jerks.”

Colette’s giggling erupted into full-blown laughter, and her tiny character shook it’s blond head, curls bouncing everywhere cutely. 

“Colette! Betrayed by everyone I care about!” Lloyd punched his desk hard enough that everyone would be able to hear it through his mic, and hissed under his breath. Fuck, that kinda hurt.

Genis moved his character up into the room with Lloyd, and after a few seconds the rest of the party had moved up too. “Enough horsing around, you guys. Let’s figure this out.” Genis muttered.

“Yeah!” Sheena and Colette cheered in unison. 

The first room was a wide open circular area, with no mobs in sight. There were three passages they could go, though the middle way was blocked by some kind of magical barrier that Lloyd didn’t have to test to know they couldn’t pass.

“So, which way?” He grinned.

**[P] [9:29 pm] Kratos:** It depends on whether or not you want to try and do this the quick way, or the safe way.

“What do you mean?” Sheena asked.

**[P] [9:32 pm] Kratos:** Although stat-wise we’re all leveled down to 10 for the instance, we’re still naturally high leveled than this dungeon and our party is generally capable. We could try splitting up and having one team of three go down each path. It’s risky, but we’d clear it much quicker.

**[P] [9:33 pm] Kratos:** On the other hand, we could all stay together and investigate one path at a time. 

“Let’s split up!” Lloyd cheered. “We can always meet back up if it’s too much!”

“I don’t know…” Colette worried. 

“Don’t you wanna see what’s at the end of this thing, like, now?” He grinned. 

Colette made a high humming noise for a few seconds before finally laughing. “Yes! Yes, I do! Quick route! Let’s do this fast!”

Genis groaned. “We’re all gonna die.” 

Sheena snorted. “Don’t be such a pessimist! We’ll be fine! How are we splitting up?”

**[P] [9:36 pm] Kratos:** Lloyd and I are both off-tanks, so we’ll be on opposite teams. Sheena and Genis are DPS orientated, so same for them. Raine and Colette should be split as well, to maintain balance. 

**[P] [9:39 pm] Kratos:** Lloyd can’t use healing magic, so he should be on the team with the stronger healer - Raine. They’ll be more stable, so they’ll take Genis who’s more flat DPS orientated than Sheena is. I’m capable of healing myself so I’ll be able to cover Colette’s smaller heals with my own. Sheena has a few support skills as well to help balance us out alongside her DPS, so we’ll be fine.

“Well, shit.” Lloyd said. 

“That sounds like it’ll work just fine. Thank you, Kratos.” Raine said, and ran her character to the left pathway. “This way, Lloyd, Genis.”

Lloyd waited for Kratos, Sheena, and Colette to disappear down the right path before following Raine and Genis down the left, his avatar’s tail swishing between his legs with just as much excitement as he felt.

\---

Kratos’ plan worked out perfectly. There were a few scares, but Lloyd’s group had little trouble. From the sounds of it, the other team was fine too. The monsters weren’t particularly hard to fight, so that was good. They came out into a huge cavernous area with magical-looking crisscrossing bridges scattered around.

“Hey, look down!” Genis said. 

Lloyd angled his camera downwards, and took a moment to gasp a tiny “...Woah!” The cavern went down  _ far _ , and he could see a bunch of other bridges way down below them. He could see Kratos, Sheena, and Colette’s avatars in the distance. “You guys must have taken the low path.”

“Woah, is that you guys up there?” Sheena gasped. “Holy shit, it is! This place is crazy!” 

The telltale warping sound of a monster spawning sounded, and Lloyd quickly turned his camera back up to see a strange looking blocky rock monster. It’s nametag floating above it’s head titled it as a ‘Block Golemn’ and he bit his lip when he saw that it was level 15. “This is gonna be a tough one.” He muttered. 

A quick glance down again showed him that the other team was encountering their very own ‘Block Golemn.’ “Don’t hit it before I do, Genis.” 

“No shit, Sherlock.” The fourteen-year old grunted.

“ _ Language,  _ Genis!” Raine barked.

Lloyd snorted, and sent his character in with a click of his skill ‘Tempest.’ The monster immediately returned a blow that Lloyd narrowly dodged with a quick roll. “I don’t think I wanna find out how hard this guy hits!”

“Understandable.” Raine hummed, and buffed Lloyd with a cast of ‘Barrier’. 

“Thanks, Professor!” He grinned, and hit ‘Tempest’ again right when the cooldown came up and his character spinned around the Golemn, swords out, narrowly avoiding another stony fist. ‘Tempest’ was really his favorite skill - not only did it look cool, but it had a built in two-second long evade. He’d probably be grateful for that evade until the day he died. 

Genis was casting magic by now, a multitude of fireballs flying past his character and slamming into the Golemn. “I’m honestly surprised,” Lloyd started, “That I haven’t been getting any lag in here.” As the words came out of his mouth, he felt an honest surge of regret and prayed to just take them right back.

Unfortunately, the world was not that kind, and neither was karma. Within seconds - he loved it to death, but his computer was  _ goddamn cursed -  _ the Golemn started flickering around, and Genis’ fireballs were plain teleporting across his screen. 

Genis said something, but the lag was hitting so bad that even skype was freaking out. ‘ _ Alright, Irving, just keep it together here. You’ve fought worse things than a Golemn 5 levels above you with more lag than this.’  _

Suddenly, his character was  _ right under  _ the Golemn’s fist, and with a loud curse, he slammed the dodge roll button. He couldn’t tell if the cooldown was actually up yet or not, but Tempest was still out so it was his only shot.

With a sigh of relief he watched as his character executed the roll, only getting clipped by the monster’s fist instead of taking the full brunt of the attack, but ate his sigh right back up as just the glancing blow took  _ at least half his health while he was still protected by Raine’s barrier.  _ “Holy  _ fuck! _ ” He hissed. “What are they feeding these things? Pure-Attack-Stat dog cookies, or what?!” 

“That’s not even an  _ item!”  _ Genis growled, and Lloyd blew out a breath of air. Thank god, if he could hear skype again that meant the lag was lightening up. 

“Don’t worry, Lloyd. I’ve got the healing under control.” Raine reassured him, and sure enough his health refilled with a little twinkling of green light around his character.

With a dramatic yell, Lloyd slammed his finger onto his ‘Sonic Thrust’ key. The attack finished the Golemn off, and it disintegrated apart against the bright floor, leaving only a big stone block behind.

A thump under his chair reminded him not to be so loud. 

Genis was snickering in his ear. “Nice anime shout, Lloyd.”

“Thanks, man. I’ve been practicing.” He snarked back.

Raine groaned. “Moving on, children.” She moved her character forward with a long-suffering sigh, and stopped in front of the block. “Despite the lag, good job holding aggro, Lloyd.” 

He fistbumped the air. “Thanks!”

Distantly, he heard Sheena yell. The other team was apparently still working on their Golemn. 

“You totally jinxed it, though.” Genis laughed.

“ _ Alright, _ Professor, what are we doing with that block?” Lloyd said, turning the conversation back to what  _ really mattered. _

Genis grumbled something, but Raine seemed just fine talking over him. “I’m able to push it.” She stated.

Lloyd sighed. “A puzzle? Really?” 

“Most likely.” Raine said. Lloyd was suddenly glad that they were on voice chat only, because he could picture with  _ startling clarity  _ the look she would be giving him right now. Probably the same one she got when he’d still needed help with his multiplication tables in early high school. Pity, mixed with a dash of disbelief. 

Lloyd frowned and shook his head. “Whatever. Do you see where it’s supposed to go?” He moved his camera around a little bit, but didn’t see anything that stood out.

“Well…” Raine murmured, getting cut off by another shout from Sheena. Lloyd looked over at the party HUD. The other team’s health bars were in various conditions, but Sheena’s bar was almost completely empty. She must have gotten slammed.

“Rest in pieces, Sheena. We knew you well.” He snickered.

“Shut  _ up,  _ Lloyd!” She shrieked back.

“Can you heal them from up here, Professor?” Lloyd asked.

The teacher made a sound of denial. “No, I can’t. I tried earlier.”

“Damn.” Lloyd frowned, feeling a bit helpless.

“They’ll be fine. Let’s just focus on figuring out what we’re doing up here.” Genis said. “I’m giving you a pat on the back right now. You can’t feel it, but I am.”

Kratos must have gotten a heal off, because Sheena’s health refilled slowly. “Alright, alright.” Lloyd nodded to himself, and started investigating around the room.

It didn’t actually take very long to find the spot they were supposed to push the block into - long enough, though, that the team down below had finished off their Golemn too. 

“That was scary!” Colette blew out a breath of air into her mic. “Whew! I thought we were goners!”

“What even happened down there?” Genis asked.

**[P] [10:07 pm] Kratos:** Sheena didn’t wait for me to pull first.

“It was an  _ accident!”  _ Sheena yelped.

Lloyd snickered. “Sheena, you  _ tanked?”  _

“Accident! I thought you were going in, Kratos!” She insisted.

**[P] [10:08 pm] Kratos:** I did not ping ready.

“You need to get a mic, dude.” Lloyd shook his head, still laughing.

A ding sounded, and Lloyd looked over. Raine had pushed the block into a little indented slot at the front of the room. It started glowing and emitting particles.

“If I’m correct, there’s going to be another block with your team, Kratos. If one of you could push it in?” She directed.

After a few moments, Lloyd watched as Kratos’ avatar pushed the block down below into another slot that lined up with the one on their floor. It began to glow too, and a bright beam of light connected them. 

“Now what?” Lloyd scratched the back of his head.

“I’m not sure!” Colette hummed, and Lloyd watched as her character hopped up to the beam of light. 

“What are you doing?” Sheena asked.

“I’m gonna try and touch it!” Colette chirped, and before anyone could say anything, her character had reached out her arm and tapped the beam of light. Suddenly, she was gone. 

“Colette!” Lloyd jumped. “What happened? You okay?”

“Yes! I’m fine! I think it’s a teleporter!” She didn’t sound worried, so Lloyd had his character walk forward and interact with it, too. His screen blacked for a moment, but loading the new area didn’t take long. After a few moments, the rest of their party appeared too. 

“Reunited once again!” Lloyd joked, laughing. Sheena laughed too, and her character crouched down a bit oddly with her hand in the air- “Oh!” Lloyd snorted, and selected her character. With a press of the ‘high-five’ emote, both their characters did a running jump and high fived each other in the air before falling back down the ground.

Colette erupted into giggles again, clapping. 

**[P] [10:12 pm] Kratos:** Good work, everyone. 

**[P] [10:12 pm] Kratos:** :)

Lloyd almost shouted. “ _ A smiley face!”  _ He choked, grinning from ear to ear. Sheena didn’t have to be quiet - her roommate was just as nocturnal as they were - and howled. 

Colette was clapping up a storm and giggling full force. Even Raine was laughing softly.

“We must have done really good to deserve that!” Genis cackled.

Kratos didn’t respond. Colette suddenly stopped laughing. “Oh, Mister Kratos! I’m sorry! We’re not laughing at you! I promise!” She stuttered. “We’re just happy you’re having fun!” 

Lloyd  _ was  _ laughing at him, honestly, but he figured he wouldn’t say anything. Just this once. 

**[P] [10:18 pm] Kratos:** … I am happy, to be having fun with you too.

**[P] [10:19 pm] Kratos:** But do not worry. I will not be using… faces again.

**[W] [10:20 pm] from Angelcake!:** look what we did!!! >:(

**[W] [10:20 pm] to Angelcake!:** COLETTE !! PLEASE !!

“There’s some kind of altar up here.” Raine’s voice cut through the mayhem. 

**[W] [10:21 pm] from luckofthedraw:** JUST THINk iF WE DIDNT LAUGH WE COULD HAVE HAD EMOJI KRATOS FOREVER

Lloyd snorted and bit his lip as hard as he could.

**[W] [10:21 pm] from Angelcake!:** stop laughing! you’re hurting his feelings! 

“Okay, okay.” Lloyd wheezed, and followed Raine up to the altar area. 

**[W] [10:22 pm] to luckofthedraw:** shut UP SHEENA IM DYING AND COLETTES gETTING MAD A T ME

**[W] [10:22 pm] from luckofthedraw:** REALLY?!

**[W] [10:22 pm] from luckofthedraw:** shit we have to be nice to kraots

**[W] [10:22 pm] from luckofthedraw:** SHIT

**[W] [10:22 pm] from luckofthedraw:** kratos

**[W] [10:22 pm] to luckofthedraw:** shit

Turning his attention to the game, Lloyd looked around the altar. It was a fancy place, with a pedestal in front of it. “What’s that?” He asked, running over to it.

“I believe Colette has to interact with it.” Raine said. “I tried, but nothing happened.” 

“Me? Why?” Colette asked. “Oh! Oh! I’m the Chosen!” She answered her own question, and ran up to the altar after Lloyd. “I almost forgot!” She giggled.

Lloyd smiled.

**[W] [10:23 pm] from luckofthedraw:** she’s sO CUTE?!? 

**[W] [10:23 pm] to luckofthedraw:** we dont have time for your gay crisis rn sheena

**[W] [10:23 pm] to luckofthedraw:** and colette is pure ill fight you

Colette’s character placed her hand on the flat top of the pedestal, and a dim white light began to emit from it. “What now?” She asked.

**[P] [10:23 pm] Kratos:** Wait, I suppose.

**[W] [10:23 pm] from luckofthedraw:** HOW IS THIS A GAY CRISIS

**[W] [10:23 pm] from luckofthedraw:** IM GAY NO CRISIS HERE

**[W] [10:24 pm] to luckofthedraw:** im watching u, sheena 

“Who the hell is talking privately in chat?” Genis grunted. “I hear two of you jerks going at it. Stop slamming your keyboards. Everybody can hear it.” 

Lloyd’s hands froze on the keyboard. 

Sheena coughed.

Someone sighed in disgust. Lloyd was at least 80% sure it was Genis. 

The ceiling above the altar suddenly began to emit light akin to the light coming from the pedestal. Slowly, a figure began to materialize in the light - one with what looked like a pair of feathery  _ wings. _ As they became clearer to see, the figure floated down the ground gracefully. 

**GM [A] [10:25 pm] Remiel:** Hello, Chosen One.

**GM [A] [10:25 pm] Remiel:** Welcome, my daughter, to the Mana Altar - the start of your journey.

“Oh god.” Lloyd whispered. “That’s a GM?”

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Genis deadpanned, letting out another long groan.

“He’s a  _ roleplayer _ .” Sheena finished, voice shaking with delight.

Colette squeaked. “He’s talking to me! What do I do?!” 

“Say hi back!” Lloyd choked out, laughter slipping out before he could stop it. “Find out what he wants!” 

“No! Stranger danger, Colette! He’s creepy!” Sheena crowed. “‘My daughter?’ Really?!” 

**[A] [10:26 pm] Angelcake!:** um! Hello! It’s nice to meet you, mister remiel!

“Too polite! Too polite, Colette!”

“Fuck!”

“Language! Calm down,-” 

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I didn’t know what to say!”

“I’m going to  _ die!” _

**GM [A] [10:26 pm] Remiel:** You and your companions have braved the trials of the Tower of Mana, and in reward, you have gained the right to begin the Journey of Regeneration!

“Companions! He actually said-”

“I fucking  _ love  _ roleplayers!”

“Now what do I say?!”

“Nobody but Colette talk! Do you hear me, idiots?! Nobody talk to him!”

“Lloyd, are you  _ typing?!  _ Don’t you dare!”

“I’m going to ask him what the journey is!” 

“LET COLETTE DO IT!”

**[A] [10:26 pm] Angelcake!:** what’s the journey of regeneration?

“Thank you, Colette.”

“No problem, Professor!”

**GM [A] [10:27 pm] Remiel:** Do not worry, my child. All will be revealed soon. For now, you will be given the gift of Mana itself to aid you on your journey.

**[A] [10:27 pm] Angelcake!:** Thank you! :)

“Don’t smiley face him, Colette. Just don’t.”

“What do you think he’d do if I started running in circles around him?”

“Lloyd. Don’t you-”

“Can we even walk on the platform up there?”

“Fuck, if you don’t do it, I totally will!”

“ _ Sheena!”  _

A tiny particle of the light the ceiling was emitting floated down, and landed on top of Colette’s avatar’s head. She started glowing, the light getting brighter and brighter until-

“Ah!” Colette gasped. “Look at me!”

A pair of bright pink butterfly shaped wings had sprouted from her back, flapping softly behind her. They looked like they were more made out of some kind of energy - ‘mana,’ Lloyd guessed - than actual physical substance like Remiel’s were. 

“You’ve got wings!” Genis yelled, and his character ran up behind her and started jumping up and down. 

“They’re so cute!” Lloyd grinned and zoomed his camera into get a better look.

“That is the cutest thing I’ve ever SEEN!” Sheena shrieked.

“Do I get to keep them?!” Colette asked.

“I have no idea! Ask!”

**[A] [10:29 pm] Angelcake!:** do i get to keep the wings?! :O they’re so cute!

**GM [A] [10:30 pm] Remiel:** Of course, my daughter. You have been gifted the power of the Angels. Use it well. 

**GM [A] [10:30 pm] Remiel:** You will meet me again - south, in the shifting sands of the desert. Look for the next temple there!

Remiel rose back up, and after a few moments, he disappeared once again into the light from where he came.

“Well.” Lloyd said. “That’s got to be the weirdest thing I’ve  _ ever _ seen in this whole game.”

“Ditto.” Genis muttered.

\---

As they headed for the exit of the dungeon, conversation continued.

“Wow.” Colette said in amazement. “That was… so much fun!” 

“Yeah!” Lloyd smiled. “Who wants to head for Triet  _ right now?!”  _

“I’m sorry, I wish I could!” Colette exclaimed. “But... I’m tired, and we have school tomorrow morning. Can we go tomorrow night?” She asked, voice wavering.

“Of course we can, silly goose!” Lloyd chuckled. 

She breathed a sigh of relief. 

As they passed by the main hall they’d started in, Lloyd noticed the middle path. The protective barrier that had been there earlier was now gone. Attention peaked, he broke off from the group and wandered over. 

Sitting on a much smaller pedestal than the one on the top floor of the tower was a tiny red ring. When he interacted with it, it told him that he’d picked up something called the ‘Sorcerer’s Ring,’ and showed him a zoomed in, fancy picture of the ring. It was red on the outside, and gold on the inside with some kind of engravings circling the inner ring. “Hey, guys! I found something over here!” 

“What is it?” Raine asked.

“Some kind of ring? I think? It’s called the- uh- ‘Sorcerer’s Ring?’ It’s got some kind of fancy writing on the inside. It kinda looks like the writing in your book!” Lloyd squinted at his screen as he read the name back to Raine.

“I’ve never heard of it. May I see it?” Raine, immediately interested, had already opened a trading interface to take it from him.

“Sure!” Lloyd agreed, and went to send her the ring. A pop-up message appeared when he tried. ‘ _ Trading bound objects is no-’  _ “Oh, shit!” He exclaimed, slumping.

“What’s wrong?” 

“I think it soul-bound to me when I picked it up. I’m sorry!” Lloyd hadn’t known it was going to bind on pickup, but he still felt guilty that he’d grabbed it so fast, especially when it was something that Raine probably wanted.

“It’s fine. If you wouldn’t mind, though, could you copy the inscription down on a piece of paper for me as best you can, and give it to me tomorrow when you come to class?” She sounded a bit disappointed, too.

“Yeah, of course. Sorry, again.” He stared at the ring in his inventory. It didn’t appear to give any stats or anything, so it was probably just a lore-related item. Damn. He only really had one ring, though, and two slots… He went ahead and equipped it. As he thought, nothing on his character page changed. “How does my character even equip rings?” He wondered out loud. “I have paws.”

Genis snorted. “For that matter, how do you even use swords?”

Lloyd shook his head in confused silence.

Everyone else had already left the dungeon, and Lloyd followed suit with a shrug. 

As the game loaded the Iselia region map back in, Colette proclaimed that she was going to bed with a huge yawn. Soon after, Raine followed and implied that if Genis didn’t go to sleep she’d turn off the electricity.

Genis went to bed.

Sheena had work in the morning, so she left too. 

Lloyd would have gone to bed, but he just wasn’t feeling that tired. He’d probably go to bed in another thirty minutes or so. Kratos was still in party with him, though. When Colette had left, she’d forgotten that she was the call host on skype, and the call had ended. There wasn’t much of a point in calling Kratos by himself, as he still didn’t have a mic.

“Hmm.” Lloyd hummed to himself out loud. The silence was odd after goofing off with everyone for so long. He momentarily considered just  _ calling  _ Kratos to have someone there even if they wouldn’t talk back, but decided against it.

He awkwardly set off back for Iselia to sell the drops he’d gotten from the dungeon, and repair some of his breaking equipment. Kratos was nowhere to be seen - he’d already wandered off, Lloyd guessed. After he got back to town and finished his business, he was at a bit of a loss. It was almost eleven, and he  _ still  _ wasn’t tired. He couldn’t think of anything he really wanted to do, though.

A message from Kratos popped up in his chatbox.

**[P] [10:57 pm] Kratos:** I’m logging off. You should do the same and get some sleep. You have school tomorrow morning.

Lloyd frowned. Where did this guy get off, always telling him what to do?

**[P] [10:57 pm] gentleswords:** nah, not right now. im not tired yet. Ill go to bed in a little bit. 

Kratos was silent again for a little while, but he hadn’t logged off yet.

**[P] [11:01 pm] Kratos:** I didn’t mean to be offensive. I’m just trying to help.

Most of Lloyd’s frustration simmered down, and he scrubbed at his face. His temper was always just a bit shorter than he was used to with Kratos.

**[P] [11:01 pm] gentleswords:** it’s fine dude

**[P] [11:01 pm] gentleswords:** you get some sleep too, ok?

**[P] [11:04 pm] Kratos:** Thank you. Goodnight, Lloyd.

**[11:04 pm] Kratos has logged off.**

Lloyd leaned back in his chair. “That was awkward.” He muttered.

But… shit. Now what to do? There was almost nobody online. Out of curiosity, he checked the map’s player count -  _ six.  _ Six people on the whole Iselia region. Lloyd shook his head. It was late, and he should really just go to bed. 

A bit of movement in the top left of his screen caught his eye, and Lloyd tilted his camera in curiosity. 

There was another player in the town.

Grinning, Lloyd directed his character to run over. He’d never been particularly shy, especially not online, where everything was basically anonymous. 

The other player’s avatar was a male Viera - very tall dark-skinned people with long bunny ears and elongated feet - with a curtain of long, curly red hair that Lloyd was almost certain he’d seen in the cash shop, along with a fancy pink sleeveless coat that Lloyd  _ knew  _ he’d seen in the cash shop. In fact, wasn’t the whole Viera race a cash shop exclusive? 

Hmm.

Hovering his cursor over the other player, their info tag popped up. 

**wildforyou** **❤**

↓LVL10 - Warrior (xMage)

“No guild…?” Lloyd wondered. “He’s a magic swordsman like Kratos, too.” They were leveled down to 10 for the area, but that wasn’t much of a surprise. Lloyd did snort a bit at their name, though.

A strange icon was next to his name, and Lloyd frowned. “I’ve never seen that before…” Hovering over it with his mouse, a text popup appeared. 

‘ _ Tethe’allen’  _

“Oh!” Lloyd whispered. “He’s from the other server!” Belatedly, Lloyd remembered Kratos saying something about players from different servers having different icons. “That’s right…”

Shrugging, Lloyd clicked up next to the Viera, and his character loyally ran right where he’d clicked. The other player was standing in the middle of town with his head bent down at a piece of paper - signifying that he had his map out. 

“Huh.” Lloyd muttered to himself again. 

Well, there was only one way to make friends in video games.

He highlighted the red-headed avatar, and pressed his wave button.

**[11:14 pm] gentleswords waves hello at** **wildforyou** **❤**

Emojis and gestures always did the trick.

After a moment, the Viera put the map away and turned towards him before backing up a few steps. 

**[11:15 pm]** **wildforyou** **❤ laughs**

Sure enough, the other player’s avatar leaned back and let out a full body laugh. 

**[A] [11:15 pm]** **wildforyou** **❤:** what do u want lol

Lloyd frowned.

**[A] [11:15 pm] gentleswords:** nothin

**[A] [11:15 pm] gentleswords:** just sayin hi idk

**[A] [11:15 pm]** **wildforyou** **❤:** really lol

**[A] [11:16 pm]** **wildforyou** **❤:** ok

**[A] [11:16 pm]** **wildforyou** **❤:** you bored or smt

**[A] [11:16 pm]** **gentleswords** **:** yeah LOL

**[A] [11:16 pm]** **wildforyou** **❤:** u a chick?? Or a dude?

Lloyd squinted at his screen.

**[A] [11:16 pm]** **gentleswords** **:** … dude? Why

**[A] [11:16 pm]** **wildforyou** **❤:** LOL

**[A] [11:16 pm]** **wildforyou** **❤:** no reason

Lloyd considered his options. This guy didn’t seem too friendly. He could just leave, honestly, and do something else. Or go to bed. But… he  _ still  _ wasn’t  _ tired _ . 

He stared at his screen and bit his lip. Ah, shit. He’d give it a shot. He could always leave later if he really didn’t end up liking the guy. He was actually a bit surprised that the other guy hadn’t just run off. People did that, sometimes.

**[A] [11:18 pm]** **gentleswords** **:** do u want to do something??? U collecting mats over here or?

**[11:18 pm]** **wildforyou** **❤ laughs**

**[A] [11:18 pm]** **wildforyou** **❤:** exploring sylvarant

**[A] [11:18 pm]** **wildforyou** **❤:** duh

**[A] [11:18 pm]** **wildforyou** **❤:** you know, i think i could actually use your help?

**[A] [11:18 pm]** **wildforyou** **❤:** if youve been playing long enough to know your way around lol

Lloyd wasn’t quite sure how he felt about that. The guy was asking for help, but in a bit of a rude way. “Hmm.”

**[A] [11:19 pm]** **gentleswords** **:** ive been playing for a while!! What are you looking for??

**[A] [11:19 pm]** **wildforyou** **❤:** some kind of desert, i think. It’s supposed to be around here? But my sylvarant map isn’t filled out at all .

**[A] [11:19 pm]** **wildforyou** **❤:** obviously.

**[A] [11:19 pm]** **wildforyou** **❤:** this is just the first town we can teleport to, so

**[A] [11:19 pm]** **wildforyou** **❤:** here i am.

Lloyd grinned, and pressed his favorite gesture button.

**[11:20 pm] gentleswords flexes**

**[A] [11:20 pm]** **gentleswords** **:** i know exactly where that is! Triet desert, right? :D

**[11:20 pm]** **wildforyou** **❤ laughs**

**[A] [11:20 pm]** **wildforyou** **❤:** nice flex lol

**[A] [11:20 pm]** **wildforyou** **❤:** and yeah i think that’s the one

**[A] [11:20 pm]** **wildforyou** **❤:** i’d prefer a cuter hunny guide, but you’ll have to do ;)

**[11:21 pm]** **wildforyou** **❤ winks**

Lloyd grumbled. “You’ll have to do?  _ You’ll have to do?  _ Jerk.” 

**[A] [11:21 pm]** **gentleswords** **:** ready now? Or?

**[A] [11:21 pm]** **wildforyou** **❤:** lead the way, bud ~ <3

Lloyd squinted. “This may have been a mistake.” He said out loud, to no-one in particular.

\---

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> honestly at the remiel part i s2g kratos is so silent bc he's just sititng there fucking busting a gut in front of his computer  
> what kind of computer do u think he has anyways


	3. why is homework always like this

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey guys! sorry it's been so long but im Here NOW! this chapters a bit shorter than the other two, but i'm just trying to get back in the form of writing so hopefully they'll lengthen out again :-)  
> thanks to everyone that stuck around!!! :D

\---

((chapter 3))

\---

After leaving Iselia, conversation between the two of them died down for the most part. Lloyd hadn’t been expecting it - **wildforyou** seemed like a talkative person, so he’d been gearing up for a long road filled with passive aggressive remarks and odd jokes. It felt awkward somehow, so when they reached the edges of the Triet Desert Lloyd decided to try and get things going again.

 **[A] [11:59 pm]** **gentleswords** **:** so what do u need in here anyways

 **[A] [11:59 pm]** **wildforyou** **❤:** quest of mine wants me to find something over here, i think

 **[A] [0:00 am]** **wildforyou** **❤:** i’m actually not 100% sure, to be honest lol

 **[A] [0:00 am]** **gentleswords** **:** oh

 **[A] [0:00 am]** **gentleswords** **:** so they added cross server quests??? that’s pretty cool i didnt think of that

Lloyd leaned back in his chair and hummed. That meant that his new friend was probably max level, or at least close to it - new quests added were almost always for endgame content. “Cool…” He whispered out loud. He’d never actually _talked_ to max level players in Aselia Online like this - he’d seen them around on occasion, of course, but it almost seemed surreal to be interacting with someone so far ahead in the game from himself.

Then again, he thought awkwardly, this was all just speculation. He didn’t _actually_ know what level **wildforyou** was. Better to just drop it now and maybe ask later if they kept hanging out - he didn’t want to seem like he was fishing for favors from higher leveled players. Lloyd had played other MMORPG games before this one, and even if he hadn’t seen that kind of thing often in Sylvarant, he’d sure as hell seen it before in other games.

 **[A] [0:02 am]** **wildforyou** **❤:** dont ask me, buddy. I got no clue either

 **[A] [0:03 am]** **gentleswords** **:** yeah… well what r u lookin for?

 **[A] [0:03 am]** **wildforyou** **❤:** probably somethin fancy?? Like a building.. Or ruins?? Tbh im not really sure lol

“Hmmm…” Lloyd sat back and tapped his chin. “A building… ruins?” Suddenly sitting up straight, he slammed his hands back down onto his keyboard. “Oh!”

 **[A] [0:04 am]** **gentleswords** **:** oh!!! Ive got it ive got it! theres this place over by the renegade base thats like?? A broken down temple or something

 **[A] [0:04 am]** **wildforyou** **❤:** yo that’s probably it, thanks bud~!

 **[A] [0:04 am]** **wildforyou** **❤:** whats a renegade base tho

 **[A] [0:04 am]** **gentleswords** **:** renegades?? Like renegades and desians??

 **[A] [0:04 am]** **wildforyou** **❤:**???

Lloyd frowned.

 **[A] [0:05 am]** **gentleswords** **:** do they… not have those in tethealla????? Its like, uh

“Shit.” Lloyd muttered. “How do I explain it?”

 **[A] [0:05 am]** **gentleswords** **:** theyre two npc factions that go at it all the time during events n stuff

 **[A] [0:05 am]** **wildforyou** **❤:** huh. thats pretty cool

 **[A] [0:05 am]** **wildforyou** **❤:** tethealla’s got somethin like that…kinda? weve got like. The pope i think. And some people that dont like the pope

 **[A] [0:06 am]** **gentleswords** **:** what

 **[A] [0:06 am]** **wildforyou** **❤:** dont look at me i dont watch the cutscenes idk who they are i just know they dont like the pope

Caught off guard, Lloyd was spluttering out laughter before he could stop himself.

 **[A] [0:06 am]** **gentleswords** **:** whats not to like about the pope????!

 **[A] [0:06 am]** **wildforyou** **❤:** idk, his mustache is kinda ugly

 **[A] [0:06 am]** **wildforyou** **❤:** crime against fashion

 **[A] [0:06 am]** **gentleswords** **:** like how bad are we talking

 **[A] [0:07 am]** **wildforyou** **❤:** super size me style handlebar stashe bad

“Oh, fuck!” Lloyd chortled as he shoved one of his fists into his mouth to muffle his snickers. “Oh, man.” He wiped at his eyes awkwardly, trying to stop the sudden giggle fit that had hit him from the mental image Tethe’alla’s Pope.

 **[A] [0:09 am]** **wildforyou** **❤:** uh oh do u have a handlebar stache

“No!” Lloyd laughed out loud, slamming his hands back down onto his keyboard.

 **[A] [0:09 am]** **gentleswords** **:** NO i was just laughing

 **[A] [0:09 am]** **gentleswords** **:** trust me no stashe here

 **[A] [0:09 am]** **wildforyou** **❤:** thank god i was worried for a second

 **[A] [0:09 am]** **wildforyou** **❤:** thought i might have to disown u and find a new tour guide

 **[A] [0:10 am]** **gentleswords** **:** god no my dad has this huge mustache that like. melds  down into an even bigger beard but its not like. Its strong

 **[A] [0:10 am]** **wildforyou** **❤:** oh nooooooo

 **[A] [0:10 am]** **gentleswords** **:** yeah my friends and i used to make him dress up as a dwarf for our dnd campaigns when we were kids like that’s how strong his beard is

 **[A] [0:10 am]** **wildforyou** **❤:** i wanna see this beard now

 **[A] [0:10 am]** **gentleswords** **:** ill ask him tomorrow if hes ok with me sending u a picture . trust me its worth it its a huge fucking beard

 **[A] [0:11 am]** **wildforyou** **❤:** well. I gotta admit this is not how i thought the night would end

 **[A] [0:11 am]** **gentleswords** **:**??

 **[A] [0:12 am]** **wildforyou** **❤:** with some random dude trying to send me pics of his dwarf dad

 **[A] [0:12 am]** **gentleswords** **:** OK listen here

Lloyd leaned forward, getting ready to type out his next sentence when his bedroom door slammed open. He shrieked and hopped in his chair, spinning it around on it’s wheels to the shadowed figure in the hallway. Noishe lifted his big doggy head at Lloyd’s feet and whined.

“Lloyd!” Dirk growled. “What did we decide on last week?!”

Lloyd scuffed his feet awkwardly on the ground. “I- We, uh-”

“ _No stayin’ up past ten while yer grades are in the shitter!”_ The short man howled.

“This is a really important night, dad! They just adde-” Lloyd started, but one sour look from Dirk cut him off. Dirk threw one of his short arms up in the air, and pointed at the dull wooden clock behind Lloyd’s bed.

“Look at that clock.” He barked.

Lloyd grimaced and looked at the clock.

“What time does it say?”

He scooted his chair a few centimeters away from the door until his back wheels touched Noishe’s furry tummy. The dog made a strange doggy yawning noise. “It says twelve fifteen.” Lloyd muttered.

“And _what time_ were ya supposed to be asleep?”

“Ten.”

“So _how much later did ya stay up than ya were supposed to?”_

“Oh, _dad!_ Don’t-”

Dirk glared.

Lloyd wilted. “Twelve fifteen minus ten is two fifteen. Two hours and fifteen minutes. I know how to subtract, dad.”

“That’s not what yer math scores are sayin’ to me.” Dirk squinted. “And do ya know what time I’ got work in the mornin’ ?”

Lloyd hunched over even more. “...Six.”

“That means I gotta be up by five to get to my shop on time. Do ya know how many hours I’ve got left to sleep?”

“...” Lloyd bit his bottom lip and stared at the floor. “Five. Five hours. I’m _sorry,_ dad-”

“ _Four hours and forty-five minutes.”_ Dirk deadpanned, cutting him off ruthlessly.

Lloyd groaned out loud and put his head in his hands.

“I _love_ ya, kid. Ya know I do. So stop pullin this shit, alright?”

Lloyd nodded meekly.

“All yer homework’s done for tomorrow, right?”

Lloyd nodded again after hesitating for a moment.

“... Ya ain’t lyin to me, are ya?”

“No!” He squeaked.

“... Alright. Go the hell to sleep, kid.” Dirk mumbled, the tense atmosphere broken in mere moments, and turned to leave. The door shut softly behind him with a click.

Lloyd breathed a tiny sigh of relief, and shot a guilty look at his backpack across the room before turning back to his computer. With a bit more guilt, he noticed his new friend had been trying to talk to him.

 **[A] [0:13 am]** **wildforyou** **❤:** im listening~~

 **[A] [0:14 am]** **wildforyou** **❤:** oh man this is gonna be a doozy huh its takin u forever to type

 **[A] [0:15 am]** **wildforyou** **❤:** guess i shouldnt have insulted ur dads beard. Sorry

 **[A] [0:15 am]** **wildforyou** **❤:** i think thats the weirdest thing ive ever typed to a stranger before

 **[A] [0:27 am]** **wildforyou** **❤:** hello???

 **[0:28 am]** **wildforyou** **❤ has left the party.**

“Shit.” Lloyd muttered.

 **[W] [0:29 am] to wildforyou** **❤** **:** hey im so sorry i got caught talking to my dad!! I woke him up;; i have to go now but if you want i can finish showing you where the thing is tomorrow?

 **wildforyou** **❤ is not currently online.**

Lloyd leaned back in his chair for the last time that night with a frown and a surprising sick feeling in his chest. “Shit.” He said again, and logged out.

\---

The next day, school crawled by at a painfully slow pace. He didn’t see much of Colette or Genis, as he had to spend lunch in what was hopefully his last detention of the week. (It turns out, falling asleep in class got very old, very fast with some teachers.) During History, he awkwardly kept his eyes down and refused to look Raine in the eyes as she went around to collect their reports and he handed in a hand-written mess that he’d scrawled out only an hour earlier during his detention period. By the time the bell rang for the end of his sixth period, Lloyd felt like ten years had been stripped off the end of his life. He’d been completely unable to focus all day - every time he’d tried he’d eventually found himself dozing off and imagining what he was going to do on Aselia Online when he got home.

Even the bus seemed like it couldn’t come and go fast enough; he pressed his forehead and nose against the window as he impatiently watched the blocks go by. Eventually, though, it pulled over next to the closest bus stop to his house. Lloyd lived in an out-of-the-way, backwatery little pocket of the city. It was like there used to be a park there, and then _someone_ had just decided to build a house in the middle of a park. There was no real road leading over to his house, just a tiny dirt path that he had to follow for about half a mile.

By the time he got in his front door, the clock in the kitchen read 3:29 P.M. School let out at around 2:20, but as far as Lloyd was concerned about an hour was making good time, all things considered. Dirk wouldn’t get home for another couple of hours, leaving Lloyd in the safe zone for playing Aselia for at least that time.

He stormed up the stairs and into his room, tossing his backpack onto his bed and stripping off his jacket. It fell to the floor in a crumpled heap, and Lloyd hopped over it with an excited hoot as he jumped onto his computer chair. It spun around a few times - honestly, rolly chairs had their ups and downs (much easier to fall out of; standing on one took careful consideration and planning, etc) but you couldn’t really beat the fun of one.

The click of tiny paws on the stairs met Lloyd has he pressed the power button on his computer and watched it slowly begin to boot up. His door was pushed open by a big furry head, and Lloyd grinned. “Hey, buddy! Come on! Come here! I’m home!”

Noishe made another odd doggy noise, and lumbered into the room. The old dog flopped down right under Lloyd’s computer desk and peered up at him with big brown eyes. Lloyd leaned over and gave Noishe’s ears a good scratch.

“So what have _you_ been doing all day, huh?” Lloyd asked the dog.

Noishe stared up at him and whined.

“Yeah.” Lloyd huffed. “Me too.”

A smooth jingle alerted him back to his computer. It was displaying the windows log-in screen, but he knew from personal experience that there was still a ways to go. With a sigh, he typed in his password - _ilovenoishe -_ and watched as the computer slowly booted up. It went to his desktop, but there were no icons on it and the taskbar was still missing. It would take about ten minutes for the computer to be usable, so Lloyd decided to head downstairs and get a snack in the kitchen.

Noishe made a whiny noise when Lloyd stood up. “You comin’?” He asked the dog. Noishe whined again and got to his feet with a stretch. Lloyd slipped out of his room and headed down the stairs with Noishe right behind him. In the kitchen, he fished a dog cookie out of the bag on the table for Noishe and tossed it to him. The dog watched as the cookie fell to the floor and slowly lumbered over to eat it.

Huffing again, Lloyd stuck his head into the pantry and looked around. Peanut butter, cereal, potatoes, soup cans… With a grin, Lloyd located what he’d come downstairs for, and hopped up to reach one of the bags of chips on the third shelf.

By the time he got back upstairs - chips in hand - his computer was at least in semi-working order. His desktop icons had finally loaded, and it looked like Skype and Steam were fighting over which program got to open first. He shut Steam down with one fell click, and let Skype finish signing in. He waited until he heard the telltale whooshing sound effect before trying to click anything else. Aselia Online was next.

Lloyd scrolled through the online section of his contact list on Skype while he waited for the game to boot, doing a customary check to see who was home. Colette was _probably_ home by now, but hadn’t gotten on the computer yet. Genis was still at math club. Sheena and, unsurprisingly, Kratos were both online.

With a shrug, Lloyd clicked on Sheena’s name.

 **[3:48 pm] Me:** hey

 **[3:49 pm] Sheena:** hey are u gettin on

 **[3:49 pm] Me:** workin on it why

 **[3:49 pm] Sheena:** kratos is insufferable i need help

 **[3:49 pm] Me:** fuck

 **[3:49 pm] Me:** do u have a call started

 **[3:49 pm] Sheena:** why the fuck would i call kratos

 **[3:49 pm] Me:** idk man i really dont know

 **[3:50 pm] Sheena:** call me

 **[3:50 pm] Sheena:** dont invite kratos until ur in the game i gotta vent

Lloyd grabbed his headphones and pressed the green call button. A few seconds later Sheena’s frustrated voice filtered through his shitty speakers.

“He invited me to party an _hour_ ago and hasn’t said a SINGLE WORD!” She yelled. Lloyd flinched from the volume and turned it down a few notches.

He snorted. “Really? I can’t get him to _stop_ talking.”

Sheena groaned. “When you put it like that it’s not that bad, but- like- UGH!” She cut herself off with a muffled yell.

Lloyd nodded sagely before remembering that Sheena couldn’t see him nod, and felt a bit put out that she’d missed such a wise-looking nod. “I just nodded.” He said. “And you didn’t _have_ to accept the party invite.”

She groaned again. “Don’t even start with that shit.” She grunted. “You would have done it too.”

“Alright.” He said, and clicked the ‘start game’ button as the Aselia launcher finally loaded all the way. His screen went black as the game went full-screen and, after a few moments, finally displayed the start screen.

He quickly logged in, and sat back to wait for his game to load in. An invite from Sheena to join their party popped up on his screen, and he clicked it with a shrug. “Time to invite Kratos to call.” Lloyd sighed.

“Yeah.” Sheena mimicked his sigh perfectly.

“You do it, if I minimize Aselia it’s going to throw a fit.” Lloyd said, completely reasonably.

“No.” Sheena replied, unreasonably.

“Ugh.” Lloyd huffed, and minimized Aselia to head over to Skype. After he dragged Kratos’ creepy anonymous picture into the call, he switched back over to the game. It lagged for a bit, but eventually it cleared.

After considering for a few moments, Lloyd typed out a quick message.

 **[W] [3:59 pm] to wildforyou** **❤:** Hey! Sorry about last night! I had to go. Do u still wanna explore?

**wildforyou❤ is not currently online.**

Lloyd frowned.

 **[P] [4:01 pm] Kratos:** Hello, Lloyd.

“Hey, Kratos. How was your mysterious day doing your mysterious job that we know nothing about?” Lloyd snarked.

“Nice conversation opener.” Sheena said.

They sat and waited.

 **[P] [4:03 pm] Kratos:** It was a normal day, like any day you’d have.

 **[P] [4:03 pm] Kratos:** Just more mysterious.

Sheena howled. Lloyd choked.

 **[W] [4:03 pm] from luckofthedraw:** HOW DOY OU GET HIM TO DO THAT I CANT GET HIM TO DO THAT

 **[W] [4:03 pm] to luckofthedraw:** I DONT KNWO I DONT KNOW

“Thank you, Kratos,” Lloyd snickered, “Thank you for making my day. That just made my day.”

 **[P] [4:05 pm] Kratos:** How long have you been home?

“Uh… like, maybe an hour? Less, I think?” Lloyd said thoughtfully. “I got right online, man. As fast as I could, I swear.”

 **[P] [4:07 pm] Kratos:** And your homework was already done?

“Oh for _fuck’s sakes!”_ Lloyd groaned. “You killed it! My day’s ruined!”

 **[W] [4:07 pm] from luckofthedraw:** FUCKING LOL

 **[P] [4:09 pm] Kratos:** Raine messaged me earlier today to tell me about your report.

Lloyd put his head in his hands and shouted.

 **[W] [4:09 pm] from luckofthedraw:** SHE MUST BE MAD OMG SHE SOLD U OUT TO KRATOS IM

Lloyd made an unintelligible noise. He thought it sounded sort of whiney, but that was ok.

 **[P] [4:11 pm] Kratos:** History is not a hard subject to grasp. It is simply the memorization of past facts and times.

 **[P] [4:12 pm] Kratos:** She gave you a reasonable amount of time to complete it. The paper you turned in was most likely written that morning, was it not?

“How do you even _know that?!”_ Lloyd whimpered.

 **[W] [4:12 pm] to luckofthedraw:** SHUT UP THIS IS SERIOUS HE’S NOT GONNA LET IT GO DO U KNOW HOW BAD HE IS

 **[W] [4:12 pm] from luckofthedraw:** yES I DO IM LAUGHING AT YOU

 **[P] [4:14 pm] Kratos:** She sent me a photocopy of your report.

 **[W] [4:14 pm] from luckofthedraw:** oh my GOD

 **[W] [4:14 pm] from luckofthedraw:** rAINE IS SAVAgE WHAT THE FUCK

“Can we please just play this game and forget about this?” Lloyd muttered. “I’m gonna go farm mats. Who needs to farm mats?”

“What are you getting?” Sheena asked. “Beast fangs? Can we farm beast fangs?”

“Sure.” Lloyd said.

 **[P] [4:15 pm] Kratos:** Absolutely not. You’re logging off and doing homework.

Lloyd stared at his screen for a few moments before squinting angrily. “No.” He said. “You can’t tell me what to do. I’m going to go get beast fangs with Sheena.”

“Awesome!” Sheena shouted.

 **[P] [4:16 pm] Kratos:** Lloyd.

“Kratos, I swear, if you don’t leave it alone I’m gonna kick you from party. And then we’re gonna go farm beast fangs. Without you.” Lloyd grumbled.

 **[P] [4:18 pm] Kratos:** I am party leader. You cannot kick me. Go do your homework.

“Lloyd, please. I need those beast fangs.”

**[4:19 pm] luckofthedraw has been kicked from party.**

Lloyd frowned. “God, damnit.”

\---

**Author's Note:**

> IM FUCKIGN LAUGHING IM SO SORRY


End file.
